Some 'deputy' applauding double engine govt even after double defeat: Akhilesh Yadav takes dig at Keshav Prasad Maurya

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], August 19 (ANI): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav took a swipe at UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya on Monday for applauding CM Yogi Adityanath and PM Narendra Modi and said that some "deputy" is appreciating the double engine government even after the "gift" of double defeat.
"Some 'deputy' is applauding double engine government even after the 'gift' of double defeat. If the honourable was doing the right thing, then what would be the need for two 'deputy chief ministers'? This means either he is not doing the right thing or the other two are useless, and incompetent, and their work is to just praise the master," Akhilesh posted on X in Hindi.
"If the deputies are really useful, then they should have been there in the Delhi division too, but they are not there! Will the Deputy answer this or will they remain silent?" he added.
In what appeared to be a rejoinder to Akhilesh's statement, KP Maurya later posted, "Lalu and Mulayam families who once boasted of uprooting Congress have themselves become crutches for Congress today. Both these families who boasted of doing politics for the backward classes have become followers of the so-called Gandhi family which sucked the blood of the backward classes for decades."
Akhilesh's statement came after Keshav Maurya praised CM Yogi on Sunday and said that the state has the best chief minister in the country. While addressing an event on Sunday, the Deputy CM said that the "double-engine" government in the state is doing the best work in the country.
"People know and believe that our double-engine government is doing the best work in the country since Independence. Is there any other leader like PM (Narendra) Modi in the world, and is there any other CM like Yogi Adityanath in the country?" Keshav Prasad said.
"When our PM Modi is the most influential leader in the world and when our CM is the best in the country, the best work is being done," he added.
Earlier in July, in a post on X, the office of the Deputy CM quoted Maurya as saying, "The organization is bigger than the government, the pain of the workers is my pain. No one is bigger than the organization, the workers are the pride." The post was interpreted by the opposition as a sign of dissent within the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh.
Maurya is currently serving his second term as the Deputy CM of the state. In 2017 he was the state BJP president when the BJP formed the majority government under CM Yogi Adityanth with 312 seats in the Assembly.
In the 2022 elections, Maurya lost the Assembly election but continued in his position as Deputy CM along with Brijesh Pathak, he was later elected to the Legislative Council.
The BJP won 33 seats in the Lok Sabha polls 2024, down from 62 it had won out of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections. (ANI)